Miracle Day In New Jersey
by daffodilsandstarships
Summary: Miracle day is here and a certain doctor at Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital has taken interest in its cause. Meanwhile Jack Harkness wonders if maybe he and this Doctor House can band together and figure out this miracle. House's team in this fic consists of my personal favourite ducklings and I also threw in my OC but trust me, she has a purpose later on.
1. Chapter 1

Princeton, New Jersey, USA- 6 A.M.

"So the bastard's finally going to hell?"

Stephanie Highman turned around to see Robert Chase entering, clearly noticing what was on television. Today was the day that Oswald Danes, the man who had raped and murdered a twelve year old girl, faced execution. At 6 in the morning there wasn't much else to watch on TV and apparently the early morning call time had meant nothing to most of the team so the coverage of the execution was what Stephanie was watching.

"Yeah, but I still don't agree with the death penalty," she replied, "I mean, let him rot in a cell for the rest of his life, don't stoop to his level."

"You realize what he did right?" Chase retorted, taking a seat next to Stephanie.

Stephanie swiveled around to face Chase, "Yeah but I mean, honestly, a life sentence is almost as bad. In fact it might even be worse. That way he lives with a constant reminder of what he did. He has to think about it every day. They kill him, he gets an easy out."

Chase just shrugged and the two sat in silence, watching the media coverage of the execution.

Meanwhile, down in the lobby, Gregory House had just entered the building. Surprisingly only five minutes late. This shocked Lisa Cuddy to say the least.

"I thought for sure you'd be at least a half hour late." she said, approaching him.

"If I played into all your assumptions then that would make me predictable," House retorted.

Cuddy shook her head, "well it's a good thing you're here. I need you to go up, get your team and I need all of you down here in the E.R., we're overloaded today."

"I don't do sprained ankles," House said.

"This is more than sprained ankles, we've got people coming in with injuries that should have killed them and we've had absolutely no DOAs. We're understaffed and we need all the help we can get."

House proceeded to take out his bottle of vicoden and pop a few pills, "my team is busy." he started to walk away before Cuddy interjected.

"I'll give you a month off clinic duty if you do it."

This suggestion appealed very much to House but he wasn't going to play right into Cuddy's hands. She was clearly desperate for help, he knew he could negotiate for more, "Two months."

Cuddy gave him a stern look, "five weeks."

"Seven weeks."

Cuddy rolled her eyes, "six weeks, that's my final offer."

House was satisfied, "alright, I'll get the ducklings down here and I'll help treat broken arms."

Six weeks off clinic duty was not half bad. In exchange for an easy shift it was probably the best deal that House had ever managed to pull. He limped over towards the conference room to see Stephanie and Chase looking at the TV, no doubt watching the coverage of Oswald Danes' execution.

"Okay girls, slumber party's over, ER is understaffed today and they need all the help they can get. Chop chop let's go."

Stephanie turned to face House, "have you seen this?" she said, "Apparently Oswald Danes just survived the lethal injections. I...I don't even know how it's possible. I did a paper on the lethal injections back in med school and the way they do it now there's almost no way to survive them, not without getting severely debilitated but according to this he's just fine."

House paused and looked at the TV. Stephanie was right, "now this is interesting." He continued to watch with Stephanie and Chase, then got up and went over to the whiteboard, "forget the ER, we've got ourselves a case. Get talking."

Chase looked over at House, confused, "he lived, that's not even a case. We figure out why people are dying, not why they're alive."

"But he should be dead." House said, pointing at the TV with his cane, "now come on, ideas, what could be keeping our favourite criminal here alive."

Chase and Stephanie looked at each other, confused. Just then Foreman and Thirteen walked in.

"Hey, what's going on?" Thirteen asked and she and Foreman proceeded to take their seats.

"Oswald Danes, convicted pedophile and murderer given the lethal injection and survives. Go!" House said, eyeing the ducklings.

"Why are we figuring out why a convicted criminal is still alive when we should be helping out in the ER." Foreman asked.

House paused and eyed Foreman, "Because it's interesting."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

**Washington D.C, USA- 3 a.m.**

By some miracle Rex Matheson had managed to survive what should have been a fatal car accident. This not only left him in immense pain but it left him wondering why he was still alive. Not even Dr. Vera Juarez could understand what was happening. The hospital hadn't had any recorded deaths in over twenty four hours. Apparently no hospitals in the country had either. She had to figure out the reason for this. She just knew it.

Meanwhile Esther Drummond was just coming into the hospital to visit Rex. She knew she didn't have to, she could have just called him and he would have picked up. He wouldn't be able to keep away from his phone or his computer for very long. But Esther wanted to see him. She needed to see his face again, make sure that he was actually alive and that she wasn't imagining things. For some reason, she wasn't sure why, she really cared for Rex. She cared about him in a way that she was unfamiliar with. Whether or not she had feelings for him she didn't know, at least she would never admit to it, even to herself. She walked into the room, a smile forming on her face as she saw him. Rex's face seemed to light up in the same way when he saw Esther.

"Hey!" he said, "It's good to see you. Didn't think you'd come by."

Esther approached his beside, "Yeah, you too. How are you feeling?"

Rex shrugged, well as much as he could in his condition, "considering I should be dead right now, not bad."

Esther couldn't help but smile just a little bit more, "so, you've been working?" she said, noticing Rex's laptop on the table next to him.

"Yeah, sounds like I'm not the only one who should be dead." he replied, "I've been checking for leads."

Esther rolled her eyes. Of course Rex would be working. As soon as he picked up that something was off he just had to investigate, "So, do you have anything yet?"

Rex shook his head, "nothing."

Just then Dr. Juarez came in, she was seemingly coming to check on Rex however she also seemed to be engrossed in a phone call.

"Well how do I get in touch with this, Dr. House?" she said into the phone, "Yes I know that all the hospitals are busy but do you have a direct line I can reach him by?" She listened to the response on the other end while heading towards Rex's chart, "If he's investigating this I want to know. We need to know what's going on." Another pause, "keep me updated then?" with that she hung up the phone. "Sorry about that, this so called miracle isn't making it easy to keep on top of things."

Rex sat up a bit, "so wait, this Dr. House, you said he's investigating this?"

"Eavesdropping on my phone conversations?" Dr. Juarez said, making a note on Rex's chart, "I should've expected it from the C.I.A." She put down the chart and walked over toward Rex, "Yeah he's a doctor in New Jersey. Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital to be exact. He's the head of their diagnostics department, only one of it's kind and he seems to have taken an interest in this 'miracle'."

Rex looked around the room, restless. Esther noticed his unease and subconciously started to mirror it. She knew what he was thinking and it worried her.

"Anyways, I've got other patients to worry about. I'll come check on you later." Dr. Juarez said before leaving the room.

As soon as she left, Rex leaned in towards Esther, "Esther, I need to find out more about Dr. House. Dig up anything you can on him."

"What about that Torchwood thing from earlier?" Esther asked, refering to the keyword that had popped up on the C.I.A. radar then suddenly disappeared.

"Yeah, look into that too," Rex replied, "I'll be out of here as soon as I can."

Esther looked at him, worried, "okay, well I guess I should get started," she said reluctantly, getting up out of her chair, "feel better soon alright." A worried smile appeared on her face as she turned to face Rex before leaving the room.

As soon as she was out of sight Rex ripped off all the various pieces of machinary attached to him and managed to get himself out of bed. He stumbled out of the room, down the hospital hallways, carrying his laptop and street clothes. Apparently he hadn't waited long enough to leave the room because just as he was headed towards the elevator he caught a glimpse of Esther turning around suddenly and noticing him.

"Rex!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Princeton, NJ, USA- 2 am**

No one in Gregory House's diagnostics department had slept. They had spent nearly the entire day up in the conference room, racking their brains to try and uncover the mystery behind what was now being called "miracle day". Everyone felt that they had exhausted every possibility, even the most far fetched ones. Everyone except House, who was getting rather fed up with his team.

"Come on, I didn't hire you all to sit back and throw around the first moronic ideas that pop in your heads! I need answers here!"

The team gave a collective eye roll. Chase lazily sat up.

"We're exhausted House," he said, "we've been here since six in the morning trying to figure this out. Maybe we need to give it a rest."

"Fine," House responded, "if you're incapable of being useful then leave." He paused for a second as he got an idea, "no, wait, the blondes can leave. The others, stay here."

Thirteen and Foreman sighed in annoyance as both Stephanie and Chase got up from their seats. Chase grabbed his things and left rather quickly while Stephanie got up more slowly, turning back and directing an apologetic look at her collegues. She genuinely felt sorry for them but she wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to get out. She and Chase headed down to the lobby and out of the hospital.

"I almost forgot that the outside world existed," Stephanie commented.

Chase nodded in agreement, then turned to face his co-worker, "what do you think this means?" he asked.

Stephanie gave him a confused look.

"This so called miracle, what's going to happen to society because of it?"

Stephanie's confused look turned into a more concerned frown, "I don't know. I mean, there's the obvious population boom, hospital over-crowding but other than that I really have no idea." She paused, contemplating the question further but nothing else came to mind, "well, for now I'm gonna try and look on the bright side of it all. We can't die, so I guess that's one less thing to worry about." She shrugged, a half smile forming on her face, "well I'll see you tomorrow. Hopefully it won't be as long as today."

Chase smiled back at her, waving as she headed towards her car. He thought about what she said. Try to look on the bright side. How could she do it? Despite all the inevitable consquences that they all knew were coming, somehow Stephanie Highman was still able to see the bright side. Chase knew that they couldn't do that for long. He knew that soon enough problems would arise from this miracle. Stephanie had only stated the obvious but he knew there was far more ahead, he wasn't exactly sure what was coming but he knew that it would involve some fast decision making and that there was a long road ahead of them if this miracle was going to last.

Meanwhile, back in the conference room, no one was getting anywhere. At this point Foreman and Thirteen where pretty much just spewing out any idea that came into either of their heads, no matter how pathetic they sounded. House's frustration was only growing. However their lack of progress was interrupted by none other than Lisa Cuddy.

"I didn't see you in the E.R. at all today," she said, her tone stern.

"This was more fun," House replied in his usual child-like way.

"You're lucky I was busy all day or you would be in a lot of trouble," she continued.

House shrugged, "well you're here and I'm not so what do you want?"

"There's a series of panels in Washington D.C. discussing what to do about this miracle day," she said, "We need to send someone and since I can't go, I figure you're the best one for the job."

House put on a pouty face, "aww mommy do I have to?"

Cuddy rolled her eyes, "if you want to keep your job, yes."

House wasn't going to argue. Though he didn't show it, he wanted to attend the panels. If someone from the hospital was going to try and solve this crisis, he knew it should be him. Cuddy knew it too and that's why she was practically ordering him to go. They both knew that he was one of the best and that he wouldn't stand for anything less than the best solution.

"Alright, I'll go," he said, "when do I leave?"

"Tonight," Cuddy answered, "as soon as you're ready to go."

**The Next Day-8 a.m**.

Foreman and Thirteen arrived in the conference room at around the same time. Chase and Stephanie were nowhere to be found. Apparently Foreman was supposed to be in charge but for once he didn't actually want to be in charge. He would have much prefered to be attending a panel in D.C. and he had a feeling that was what Thirteen wanted as well.

"What are we doing here?" Thirteen said, breaking the silence.

Foreman turned to face her, "what's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean what are we doing, sitting around, trying to figure this out?" she continued, "We should be at the panel, trying to decide what to do."

Foreman agreed with her but wasn't about to say it out loud, he had to be calm and collected. He had to be the leader here, "House is already there, I'm sure he'll do the right thing. We'd only be taking up space."

Thirteen gave him an unimpressed look, she could see right through him, "you don't really think that," she said, "you want to be there too and you know it."

Foreman sighed, defeated, "okay yeah, you're right. I'd rather be there than sitting around in this office doing nothing but we have to stay here. Help out, try and figure out the cause of the miracle."

Thirteen sat up in her seat, "Why?" she asked, "Why can't we just go. Steph and Chase are still gonna be here. They can figure it out and the hospital will be just fine without the two of us." She glanced around and then grabbed her bag, "I say we go. Right now."

Foreman looked up at the clock, then over at the door, then back to Thirteen, "Okay. Let's do it."

**A short while later:**

After a good night's sleep, Stephanie and Chase had both arrived at the hospital, surprised to find that they were the only members of the diagnostics department who had arrived. They both looked around for any sign of their co-workers, only to find a note on the glass table that read:

_Gone to panel, we'll call you._

"Panel? What panel?" Stephanie asked, confused.

Chase was just as confused as Stephanie, no one had told them about any sort of panel. Perhaps after they had gone House had run off with Foreman and Thirteen and taken them to it. What the panel was about neither of them really knew but they figured it was probably to do with miracle day.


End file.
